A Sustainable Niche Market: How Does Honey Behave?

Abstract

The global honey market has witnessed constant growth over recent decades, especially in Asian regions. In recent years, the increase in export flows of this product throughout the world has raised the issue of the lack of international import standards and regulations, making trade susceptible to variables that are not only economic, but also social or political. The objective of this study is therefore to explore, using the econometric methodology of gravity models, what the determinants of the international honey trade are, both economic and socio-cultural, and to verify whether a niche market, such as the one being examined, is influenced by these covariates, in a similar manner to the main commodities of the agri-food sector, or if honey displays a unique behavior. The results show that honey market behavior is not statistically different from that of the main agri-food products already studied and that the cultural distance, introduced as a covariate, does not have a significant influence.

Consumers’ attitude towards honey consumption for its health benefits: first insights from an econometric approach

“…In recent years, consumer attitudes and behaviours towards honey have garnered considerable interest from researchers, resulting in a large body of scientific production covering different aspects of consumption. Researchers' interest in this product can be partly explained by the increase in production and consumption (Garc ıa, 2018;Pippinato et al, 2020), but also by the positive environmental implications of beekeeping, in terms of ecosystem services (Blanc et al, 2018;Tamburini et al, 2019;Sillman et al, 2021).…”

Investigating the price effects of honey quality attributes in a European country: Evidence from a hedonic price approach

“…The Vuong test is distributed asymptotically as a standard normal, thus, values larger than the critical $${N}_{\alpha /2}$$ (with $$\alpha $$ the significance level) favor model j , negative values $${-N}_{\alpha /2}$$ are in favor of model k and Vuong ≤ $${N}_{\alpha /2}$$ indicates no significant differences between the two models. Nevertheless, in a hedonic price approach, explanatory variables are commonly introduced as dummy variables, thus the use of the semi‐logarithmic form is very common in many agri‐food studies (Bissinger & Herrmann, 2021; Bissinger et al, 2019; Combris et al, 1997; Pippinato et al, 2020).…”

“…This has also led to important economic consequences to local beekeepers, which now highlight the concept of local production closely linked to the territory. This is being valued positively by consumers as well, who associate local purchases with positive contributions to the environment and the preservation of economic activities in their local and rural areas (Ribeiro et al, 2018; Khaoula et al 2019; Pippinato et al, 2020; Vapa‐Tankosić et al, 2020). Organic and protected designation of origin (PDO) are also important attributes that can help beekeepers to gain a better recognition of their product (Arvanitoyannis & Krystallis, 2006; Oliveira et al, 2018).…”

Protective Roles of Honey in Reproductive Health: A Review

“…This could meet the market demand, which is expanding every year. Besides that, the growth of technological and scientific advancement contributed to rapid expansion in honey production, resulting in a total of 1.8 million tonnes of honey being produced in 2016 worldwide [ 26 ].…”